Roy Halladay leaves team for family matter

ATLANTA – The Phillies left Turner Field for a charter flight bound for Washington on Thursday afternoon. Roy Halladay left a night earlier.

Halladay wasn’t with the team for the series finale against the Braves. According to the Phillies, Halladay left the team “to attend to a family matter.”

Halladay, who told the team of his plans Tuesday, is expected to rejoin the Phillies at Nationals Park today.

Halladay’s absence Thursday came on the heels of one of the worst starts of his 15-year career. After the Phillies took a 6-0 lead on Wednesday, Halladay gave up eight unanswered runs.

The Phillies eventually lost 15-13 in extra innings. It was the first time in his three years with the Phils that Halladay was given a four-run lead and the team lost.

It was just the ninth time in 119 career games when he was given a four-run lead that Halladay’s team lost.

Despite the shocking turn of events – Halladay gave up eight runs on nine hits in the span of two innings – he said afterward that he was healthy.

“Honestly, I felt good,” Halladay said after the game. “There were some pitches with guys on that I didn’t execute pitches. It had nothing to do with anything else. I wish I had a better reason for you, but I don’t.”

Like a detective asked about the scene of a crime, pitching coach Rich Dubee offered his take Thursday morning.

“His stuff doesn’t seem like it’s accelerating through the hitting zone at times. At times it does, at times it doesn’t,” Dubee said. “Hell, I think he gave up six or seven in one outing last year somewhere early in the year.”

On April 19 of 2011, in his fourth start of the season, Halladay gave up what would be a season-high six runs on 10 hits in a 9-0 loss to the Brewers. In his next start, he struck out a season-high 14 batters in 8 2/3 innings of a 3-1 win over the Padres.

Wednesday night marked the first time he allowed more than seven earned runs since an 11-4 Blue Jays loss to Texas on May 5, 2007; in his next start, he allowed eight runs (seven earned) in an 8-0 loss to the Red Sox.

Wednesday was the first time Halladay had allowed more than six runs in a start with the Phillies since giving up seven (six earned) in an 8-3 loss to the Red Sox on May 23, 2010. In his next start, he threw the 20th perfect game in baseball history.

l l lJonathan Papelbon has been as good as advertised after signing a four-year, $50 million contract as a free agent this winter, the largest deal ever for a relief pitcher.

He is 9-for-9 in save opportunities and entered Thursday leading all major league pitchers in saves.

Only Papelbon, Jim Johnson of Baltimore and Houston’s Brett Myers had at least six saves without a blown save. Papelbon had saved nine of the Phillies’ 12 wins.

Despite his near-dominance a month into the season, Papelbon was not going to be asked to pitch beyond a regular save situation in Wednesday night’s wild 15-13, 11-inning loss.

When the Phillies took a 12-9 lead into the eighth inning, Jose Contreras allowed four of the first five base runners to reach before Michael Schwimer took over and gave up four runs to the first three batters he faced.

Manuel was asked afterward if he could have called on Papelbon at some point in the inning.

“We never do that; it’s just not the way it is,” Manuel said. “Papelbon is in the ninth inning for a save. When we ever have a lead, when we start the ninth inning, he’s going to save.”

Papelbon has been asked to get a save with fives outs or more eight times in his career. He has come on to get four outs or more 39 times, and just once since 2009. He has converted 31 of those 39 four-out save chances, a 79.5 percent success rate.

Would he ever be asked to get anything more than a three-out save with the Phillies?

“I’m fine with that,” pitching coach Rich Dubee said. “I generally don’t like doing it the first month, two months. I’m not big on doing it early.”

Dubee also wasn’t warm to the unconventional idea of using his closer in the eighth in a game-saving situation, while plugging in another reliever in the ninth.

“The ninth is a different beast,” Dubee said. “Regardless of what people think, the ‘OK, it’s just another inning.’ The ninth is a different beast. You look at all the characters that have failed that, guys that are real solid in the 8th or the 7th, but for whatever reason you put a 9 up there and it’s a different animal.”

l l lThe Phils will get their first crack at dethroning the current first-place Washington Nationals beginning tonight, when Kyle Kendrick squares off against Stephen Strasburg.

Although the Phils have won five straight National League East titles, Washington entered play Thursday with the third-best record in the National League and a major league-best 2.47 ERA.

“We’ll be all right, we’ll be OK,” manager Charlie Manuel said with a smirk when asked about the Nats. “We’re going to show up. I don’t think we’re going to be scared. I know I’m not. We’ll see.”

Friday will mark the first time the Phils will get to see 19-year-old, former first-round pick Bryce Harper. The uber-prospect was called up a week ago and was hitting .385 through his first four games.

Shane Victorino, who makes an offseason home in Las Vegas, Harper’s hometown, first met the teenage phenom five years ago and hit with him before both left for spring training.

“I hadn’t seen 15, 16 year olds hit the ball like he did,” Victorino said. “I knew he was going to be good, knew he was going to be ‘that guy.’”

Although he was drafted only two years ago, Harper has developed a rep as a cocky, flamboyant player in the mold of Barry Bonds, which has rubbed some players the wrong way.

“The kid has basically been labeled the next great thing in baseball,” Victorino said. “To have that put upon him you sometimes go out and take it differently. But I’ve watched him play. He hits a ground ball and he runs hard. Is that going to stop? I don’t know, but from what I’ve seen so far of his big league performance I love the fact he’s playing the game hard. That’s important to me. ... But don’t get me wrong. I want to shove it up his butt when I see him this week. I want to take it to him.”